A note on Gallai-Ramsey number of even wheels

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1 A note on Gallai-Ramsey number of even wheels Zi-Xia Song a, Bing Wei b, Fangfang Zhang c,a, and Qinghong Zhao b a Department of Mathematics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA b Department of Mathematics, University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS 38677, USA c Department of Mathematics, Nanjing University, Nanjing , P. R. China January 28, 2019 Abstract A Gallai coloring of a complete graph is an edge-coloring such that no triangle has all its edges colored differently. A Gallai k-coloring is a Gallai coloring that uses k colors. Given a graph H and an integer k 1, the Gallai-Ramsey number GR k (H) of H is the least positive integer N such that every Gallai k-coloring of the complete graph K N contains a monochromatic copy of H. Let W 2n denote an even wheel on 2n vertices. In this note, we study Gallai-Ramsey number of W 2n and completely determine the exact value of GR k (W 4 ) for all k 2. Key words: Gallai coloring, Gallai-Ramsey number, rainbow triangle 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 05C55; 05D10; 05C15 1 Introduction All graphs in this paper are finite, simple and undirected. Given a graph G and a set S V (G), we use G to denote the number of vertices of G, and G[S] to denote the subgraph of G obtained from G by deleting all vertices in V (G) \ S. For two disjoint sets A, B V (G), A is complete to B in G if every vertex in A is adjacent to all vertices in B. We use K n, C n, P n to denote the complete graph, cycle, and path on n vertices, respectively; and W n to denote a wheel on n + 1 vertices. For any positive integer k, we write [k] for the set 1,..., k}. We use the convention S := to mean that S is defined to be the right-hand side of the relation. Given an integer k 1 and graphs H 1,..., H k, the classical Ramsey number R(H 1,..., H k ) is the least integer N such that every k-coloring of the edges of K N contains a monochromatic copy of H i in color i for some i [k]. Ramsey numbers are notoriously difficult to compute in general. Very little is known for Ramsey numbers of Corresponding author. address: fangfangzh@smail.nju.edu.cn 1

2 wheels and the exact value of R(W n, W n ) is only known for n 3, 4, 5} (see [11, 14, 7]). In this paper, we study Ramsey number of wheels in Gallai colorings, where a Gallai coloring is a coloring of the edges of a complete graph without rainbow triangles (that is, a triangle with all its edges colored differently). Gallai colorings naturally arise in several areas including: information theory [15]; the study of partially ordered sets, as in Gallai s original paper [10] (his result was restated in [13] in the terminology of graphs); and the study of perfect graphs [4]. More information on this topic can be found in [8, 9]. A Gallai k-coloring is a Gallai coloring that uses k colors. Given an integer k 1 and graphs H 1,..., H k, the Gallai-Ramsey number GR(H 1,..., H k ) is the least integer N such that every (K N, τ) contains a monochromatic copy of H i in color i for some i [k]. When H = H 1 = = H k, we simply write GR k (H) and R k (H). Clearly, GR k (H) R k (H) for all k 1 and GR(H 1, H 2 ) = R(H 1, H 2 ). In 2010, Gyárfás, Sárközy, Sebő and Selkow [12] proved the general behavior of GR k (H). Theorem 1.1 ([12]). Let H be a fixed graph with no isolated vertices and let k 1 be an integer. Then GR k (H) is exponential in k if H is not bipartite, linear in k if H is bipartite but not a star, and constant (does not depend on k) when H is a star. It turns out that for some graphs H (e.g., when H = C 3 ), GR k (H) behaves nicely, while the order of magnitude of R k (H) seems hopelessly difficult to determine. It is worth noting that finding exact values of GR k (H) is far from trivial, even when H is small. The following structural result of Gallai [10] is crucial in determining the exact value of Gallai-Ramsey number of a graph H. Theorem 1.2 ([10]). For any Gallai coloring τ of a complete graph G with G 2, V (G) can be partitioned into nonempty sets V 1, V 2,..., V p with p > 1 so that at most two colors are used on the edges in E(G) \ (E(V 1 ) E(V p )) and only one color is used on the edges between any fixed pair (V i, V j ) under τ, where E(V i ) denotes the set of edges in G[V i ] for all i [p]. The partition given in Theorem 1.2 is a Gallai partition of the complete graph G under τ. Given a Gallai partition V 1,..., V p of the complete graph G under τ, let v i V i for all i [p] and let R := G[v 1,..., v p }]. Then R is the reduced graph of G corresponding to the given Gallai partition under τ. By Theorem 1.2, all edges in R are colored by at most two colors under τ. One can see that any monochromatic copy of H in R will result in a monochromatic copy of H in G under τ. It is not surprising that Gallai-Ramsey number GR k (H) is closely related to the classical Ramsey number R 2 (H). The following is a conjecture of Fox, Grinshpun and Pach [8] on GR k (H) when H is a complete graph. 2

3 Conjecture 1.3 ([8]). For all k 1 and t 3, GR k (K t ) = (R2 (K t ) 1) k/2 + 1 if k is even (t 1)(R 2 (K t ) 1) (k 1)/2 + 1 if k is odd. The first case k = 3 of Conjecture 1.3 follows directly from a result of Chung and Graham [6] from 1983, and a simpler proof can be found in [12]. Recently, the case k = 4 of Conjecture 1.3 was proved in [18]. In this note, we study Gallai-Ramsey number of even wheels. We use (G, τ) to denote a Gallai k-colored complete graph if G is a complete graph and τ : E(G) [k] is a Gallai k-coloring. For any A, B V (G), if all the edges between A and B are colored the same color, say blue, under τ, we say that A is blue-complete to B in (G, τ). We simply say a is blue-complete to B in (G, τ) when A = a}. We first prove the following general lower bound for GR k (W 2n ) for all k 2 and n 2. Proposition 1.4. For all n 2 and k 2, GR k (W 2n ) (R2 (W 2n ) 1) 5 (k 2)/2 + 1 if k is even 2(R 2 (W 2n ) 1) 5 (k 3)/2 + 1 if k is odd. Proof. Let m := R 2 (W 2n ) 1 and G 2 := K m. Let (G 2, τ 2 ) be Gallai 2-colored with colors 1, 2 such that G 2 has no monochromatic copy of W 2n under τ 2. We then construct (G k, τ k ) recursively for all k 3. When k 3 is even, let (H, c) := (K 5, c) be such that edges of H are colored by colors k and k 1 with no monochromatic copy of K 3. Let (G k, τ k ) be obtained from (H, c) by replacing each vertex of H with (G k 2, τ k 2 ). When k 3 is odd, let (G k, τ k ) be the join of two disjoint copies of (G k 1, τ k 1 ), with all the new edges colored by color k. Clearly, (G k, τ k ) has no rainbow triangle and no monochromatic copy of W 2n. Hence, GR k (W 2n ) G k + 1, as desired. The main result in this note is Theorem 1.5 below, which establishes the exact value of GR k (W 4 ) for all k 2. Theorem 1.5. For all k 2, GR k (W 4 ) = 14 5 k , if k is even, 28 5 k , if k is odd. With the support of Theorem 1.5, it seems that the lower bound given in Proposition 1.4 is also the desired upper bound for GR k (W 2n ). We propose the following conjecture. 3

4 Conjecture 1.6. For all k 2 and n 2, (R 2 (W 2n ) 1) 5 k , if k is even, GR k (W 2n ) = 2(R 2 (W 2n ) 1) 5 k , if k is odd. It is worth noting that very recently, Gallai-Ramsey number of some other graphs with at most five vertices were studied by Li and Wang [17]. More recent work on Gallai-Ramsey numbers of cycles can be found in [3, 1, 2, 5, 20, 19, 16]. 2 Proof of Theorem 1.5 Let f(1) := 4 and for all k 2, let f(k) := 14 5 k 2 2, if k is even, 28 5 k 3 2, if k is odd. Then for all k 3, f(k) 2f(k 1), 5f(k 2). ( ) By Proposition 1.4, it suffices to show that for all k 2, GR k (W 4 ) f(k) + 1. By a result in [14], R 2 (W 4 ) = 15 and so GR 2 (W 4 ) = R 2 (W 4 ) = f(2) + 1. We may assume that k 3. Let G := K f(k)+1 and let τ : E(G) [k] be any Gallai k-coloring of G. Suppose that (G, τ) does not contain any monochromatic copy of W 4. Then τ is bad. Among all complete graphs on f(k)+1 vertices with a bad Gallai k-coloring, we choose (G, τ) with k minimum. We next prove several claims. Claim 1. Let A V (G) and let i [k] be a color, say blue. If (G[A], τ) has no blue P 3, then A f(k 1). Proof. Suppose A f(k 1) + 1. By the minimality of k, GR k 1 (W 4 ) f(k 1) + 1. Then A GR k 1 (W 4 ). Since k 3, let red be another color in [k] \ i}, and let τ be obtained from τ by replacing colors red and blue with a new color, say β / [k]. Then τ is a Gallai (k 1)-coloring of G and so (G[A], τ ) contains a monochromatic copy of W := W 4 because A GR k 1 (W 4 ). Since (G[A], τ) contains no monochromatic W 4, it follows that W must be a monochromatic W 4 in color β. For the remaining proof of this claim, we use W 4 = (u 1, u 2, u 3, u 4 ; u 0 ) to denote a wheel on 5 vertices, where W 4 \ u 0 is a cycle with vertices u 1, u 2, u 3, u 4 in order, and u 0 is complete to u 1, u 2, u 3, u 4 }. Let W = (u 1, u 2, u 3, u 4 ; u 0 ). Then W has at most two independent blue edges under τ, because (G[A], τ) has no blue P 3. Thus W [u 1, u 2, u 3, u 4 }] must be a red C 4 under τ, otherwise, say u 1 u 2 is blue. Then u 1, u 2 } is red-complete to u 3, u 4, u 0 } in G under τ. We may further assume that u 0 u 3 is red under τ. But then we obtain a red W 4 = (u 1, u 4, u 2, u 3 ; u 0 ) under τ when u 0 u 4 is red; and a red 4

5 W 4 = (u 0, u 2, u 4, u 1 ; u 3 ) under τ when u 0 u 4 is blue, a contradiction. This proves that W [u 1, u 2, u 3, u 4 }] is a red C 4 under τ. Since (G[A], τ) has no blue P 3, we see that exactly one of the edges u 0 u 1, u 0 u 2, u 0 u 3, u 0 u 4, say u 0 u 1 is blue under τ. But then we obtain a red W 4 = (u 1, u 2, u 0, u 4 ; u 3 ) under τ, a contradiction. Claim 2. Let A V (G) and let i, j [k] be two distinct colors, say red and blue. If (G[A], τ) has neither red nor blue P 3, then A f(k 2). Proof. Let τ be obtained from τ by replacing colors red and blue with a new color, say β / [k]. Then τ is a Gallai (k 1)-coloring of G. We claim that (G[A], τ ) has no monochromatic copy of P 3 in color β. Suppose not. Let x 1, x 2, x 3 A be such that x 1 x 2, x 2 x 3 are colored by color β under τ. Since (G[A], τ) has neither red nor blue P 3, we may assume that x 1 x 2 is colored blue and x 2 x 3 is colored red under τ. Then x 1 x 3 is colored neither red nor blue under τ. But then (G[x 1, x 2, x 3 }], τ) is a rainbow triangle, a contradiction. Thus (G[A], τ ) has no monochromatic copy of P 3 in color β, as claimed. Then (G, τ ) has no monochromatic copy of W 4. By Claim 1 applied to A, τ and color β, we have A f(k 2). Claim 3. Let A V (G) and x, y V (G) \ A. If all the edges between x, y} and A are colored the same color, say blue, under τ, then G[A] contains no blue P 3. Proof. Suppose (G[A], τ) contains a blue copy of P 3 with vertices, say v 1, v 2, v 3 in order. Then G[v 1, x, v 3, y, v 2 }] has a blue copy of W 4, a contradiction. Let x 1, x 2,..., x m V (G) be a maximum sequence of vertices chosen as follows: for each j [m], all edges between x j and V (G) \ x 1, x 2,..., x j } are colored by the same color under τ. Let X := x 1, x 2,..., x m }. Note that X is possibly empty. For each x j X, let τ(x j ) be the unique color on the edges between x j and V (G) \ x 1, x 2,..., x j }. Claim 4. τ(x i ) τ(x j ) for all i, j [m] with i j. Proof. Suppose there exist i, j [m] with i j such that τ(x i ) = τ(x j ). We may assume that the color τ(x i ) is blue, i < j, and x j is the first vertex in the sequence x 1,..., x m such that τ(x j ) = τ(x i ) for some i [m] with i < j. By the pigeonhole principle, j k + 1. Let A := x 1, x 2,..., x j }. By Claim 3, G \ A has no blue P 3. By Claim 1, G\A f(k 1). But then G f(k 1)+k+1 < f(k)+1, a contradiction. By Claim 4, X k. Note that G \ X has no monochromatic copy of W 4 under τ. Consider a Gallai-partition of G\X, as given in Theorem 1.2, with parts V 1, V 2,..., V p, where p 2. We may assume that V 1 V 2... V p. Let R be the the reduced graph of G \ X with vertices a 1,..., a p. By Theorem 1.2, we may assume that every edge of R is colored red or blue. Note that any monochromatic copy of W 4 in R would yield a monochromatic copy of W 4 in G \ X. Thus R has neither red nor blue W 4. 5

6 Since R 2 (W 4 ) = 15, we see that p 14. Then V 1 2 because G \ X 26 for all k 3. Let B := v p i=2 V i v is blue-complete to V 1 under τ} R := v p i=2 V i v is red-complete to V 1 under τ} Then B + R + V 1 = G X. We may assume that B R. By the choice of x 1,..., x m, R 2. By Claim 3, neither (G[V 1 ], τ) nor (G[R], τ) contains a red copy of P 3. Note that (G[V 1 R], τ) has a red copy of C 4. Thus no vertex in X is red-complete to V (G) \ X under τ. Claim 5. (G[B], τ) contains a red copy of P 3. Furthermore, V 1 X f(k 2). Proof. Suppose (G[B], τ) has no red P 3. Then (G[B V 1 X], τ) has no red P 3, because no vertex in X is red-complete to V (G) \ X under τ and (G[V 1 ], τ) has no red P 3. Note that (G[R], τ) has no red P 3. By Claim 1, R f(k 1) and B V 1 X f(k 1). By ( ), 2f(k 1) f(k) for all k 3. But then G = R + B V 1 X 2f(k 1) f(k), a contradiction. Thus (G[B], τ) contains a red copy of P 3 and so B 3. Then no vertex in X is blue-complete to V (G) \ X under τ. By Claim 3, (G[V 1 ], τ) has no blue P 3. Thus (G[V 1 X], τ) contains neither red nor blue P 3. By Claim 2, V 1 X f(k 2), as desired. Claim 6. V 3 1. Proof. Suppose V 1 V 2 V 3 2. Since (G, τ) contains no monochromatic W 4, we see that R[a 1, a 2, a 3 }] is not a monochromatic triangle. Let A 1, A 2, A 3 be a permutation of V 1, V 2, V 3 such that A 2 is, say, blue-complete, to A 1 A 3 in G. Then A 1 must be red-complete to A 3. Let A := V (G) \ (A 1 A 2 A 3 X). Then no vertex in A is red-complete to A 1 A 3, and no vertex in A is blue-complete to A 1 A 2 or A 2 A 3. This implies that A must be red-complete to A 2. Note that every vertex in A is bluecomplete to either A 1 or A 3. Let A := v A v is blue-complete to A 1 under τ}. Then A \ A is blue-complete to A 3 under τ. Note that A 1 is blue-complete to A and A 2 is red-complete to A. By Claim 3, (G[A ], τ) has neither red nor blue P 3. By Claim 2, A f(k 2). Similarly, A \ A f(k 2). By Claim 5, A i f(k 2) X for all i 1, 2, 3}. By ( ), 5f(k 2) f(k) for all k 3. But then G = A + A \ A + A 1 + A 2 + A 3 + X 5f(k 2) 2 X f(k), a contradiction. By Claim 6, V 3 1. By Claim 5, V 1 X f(k 2) and so V 2 f(k 2). By 6

7 ( ) again, 5f(k 2) f(k) for all k 3. But then G = V 1 X + V 2 + V V p 2f(k 2) + (p 2) 2f(k 2) f(k 2) f(k), because p 14 and f(k 2) 4, a contradiction. This completes the proof of Theorem 1.5. Acknowledgements The research of Fangfang Zhang is supported by the Chinese Scholarship Council. References [1] C. Bosse, Z-X. Song, Multicolor Gallai-Ramsey numbers of C 9 and C 11, arxiv: [2] C. Bosse, Z-X. Song, J. Zhang, Improved upper bounds for Gallai-Ramsey numbers of odd cycles, arxiv: [3] D. Bruce, Z-X. Song, Gallai-Ramsey numbers of C 7 with multiple colors, Discrete Mathematics 342 (2019) [4] K. Cameron, J. Edmonds, L. Lovász, A note on perfect graphs, Periodica Mathematica Hungarica 17 (1986) [5] M. Chen, Y. Li, C. Pei, Gallai-Ramsey numbers of odd cycles and complete bipartite graphs, Graphs and Combinatorics 34 (2018) [6] F. R. K. Chung, R. Graham, Edge-colored complete graphs with precisely colored subgraphs, Combinatorica 3 (1983) [7] R. J. Faudree, B. D. McKay, A Conjecture of Erdős and the Ramsey Number r(w 6 ), Journal of Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing 13 (1993) [8] J. Fox, A. Grinshpun, J. Pach, The Erdős-Hajnal conjecture for rainbow triangles, Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series B 111 (2015) [9] S. Fujita, C. Magnant, K. Ozeki, Rainbow generalizations of Ramsey theory: a survey, Graphs and Combinatorics 26 (2010) [10] T. Gallai, Transitiv orientierbare Graphen, Acta mathematica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 18 (1967)

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